Infant mortality and longevity of DVD media?

RE: " I doubt that I will use up the spindle at less than a dozen blanks a year before dual layer media and drives become standard " Become? Dual layer drives became standard about 2 years ago. I doubt you can buy a burner which is not dual layer. ALL readers have been dual layer since day 1, because most commercial DVDs (e.g. movies and TV shows) are dual layer (but factory pressed media rather than burned media). On the other hand, I doubt that dual layer DVD will ever outsell single layer DVD. It is FAR more expensive (almost 10x), it offers LESS THAN twice the capacity (8GB vs. 4.7GB) and it is very likely to be FAR less reliable. I use dual layer because I need to for some of my work, but I don't like it. I have never had a problem, but I know how it works and I don't trust it. I consider it to be a miracle that it works at all. The current standard for drives is "burn everything", all formats, both CD & DVD, + and -, single and dual layer, for about $40. I still believe that Pioneer makes the best drives, but Pioneer doesn't support "lightscribe" (the ability to "burn" a graphic label on the label side of the media), so I have two DVD burner drives in my machine, a Pioneer and a Samsung (which I think is the second best brand, and which does support Lightscribe). My next move, probably in about 2 years, will be to Blu-Ray, but right now it's still [WAY] too expensive.